The Pain Course: a randomised controlled trial of a clinician-guided Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy program for managing chronic pain and emotional well-being.

This study evaluated Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) delivered as a clinical- guided internet-delivered program. The aim of this program, the Pain course, was to reduce disability, anxiety and depression in people with chronic pain.

A total of 63 adults took part and were randomized to either a Treatment- or Waitlist control group. The Pain course included 5 online lessons with homework assignments and written recourses. The lessons covered a range of topics related to chronic pain. A psychologist provided clinical contact with participants during the course.

Outcome measures included several questionnaires with the focus on disability, depression, anxiety and pain scores. The treatment group had significantly better post treatment scores then the control group on most outcome measures except for the coping subscale. There was no follow up to compare the both groups over time. The numbers needed to treat to obtain 30% improvement ranged from 2.63-7.89 on the different outcome measures.

The small sample size was sufficient to compare between Treatment and Control groups but not between different pain conditions or other important variables. Future research on iCBT is needed to examine the role and contributions of clinicians and how we can use these models effectively for people with chronic pain. > From: Dear et al., Pain 154 (2013) 942-950. All rights reserved to Elsevier B.V.

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